The use of postage indicia in place of traditional postage stamps has become wide spread. Dedicated postage meters, for example, configured to strike postage indicia imprints upon envelopes and labels have been in use for many years. Such postage meters include a postage value vault and controlled printing mechanism which will strike postage indicia and debit a corresponding amount of value from the postage value vault under control of user input. The postage meters are typically somewhat bulky due at least in part to the security measures implemented to thwart fraudulent postage indicia strikes. Moreover, obtaining postage value credit refill is often a complicated and cumbersome task. Accordingly, the use and management of such postage meters is less than ideal for many users.
Solutions for generating and printing valid postage indicia using a home or office processor-based system, such as a personal computer (PC), have been provided by Stamps.com Inc., Los Angeles, Calif. (the assignee of the present application) for a number of years. The postage indicia generated by such processor-based systems has typically been an information based indicia (IBI), wherein a barcode (e.g., two-dimensional barcode) carries information useful for validating the indicia when placed in the mail stream. Such solutions have facilitated ad-hoc generation and printing of postage indicia, such as to generate and print individual postage indicia for a particular mail piece. Although providing significantly more convenience than traditional postage meters for many users, these processor-based systems continue to utilize relatively bulky printers (e.g., ink jet or laser printers) for imprinting postage indicia upon an envelope or label.
Although providing a very convenient solution for providing valid postage to individuals and businesses upon demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the foregoing solutions may not address every situation. For example, a user may not utilize a sufficient amount of postage to justify the lease of a traditional postage meter or otherwise may not wish to obtain and manage such a dedicated use system. A user may not be comfortable with processor-based technology and thus be reluctant to utilize PC based postage systems to generate and print postage. A user, although regularly using such processor-based system, may have insufficient supplies on hand (e.g., label stock, printer ink/toner, etc.) to print postage indicia. Similarly, a user may be traveling and thus not have a postage meter, PC based postage system, or even a suitable printer available for their use in generating and printing postage indicia.
Even where a user has access to the appropriate equipment for generating and printing postage indicia, such solutions may not be ideal for the user. For example, the generation of postage indicia is typically preceded by debiting the user's postage value account (e.g., the aforementioned postage value vault) in order to prevent the printing of valuable postage indicia without proper payment for that value. However, should a postage meter print mechanism malfunction, a host PC processor cease to operate, an envelope or label be positioned improperly, etc. a postage indicia misprint may occur. The user is then typically put to the task of proving that a misprint has occurred in order to receive a refund of the associated value. Issues such as this can result in some users resisting adoption of the foregoing metering technology.
Techniques for batch generation and printing of postage indicia, such as to generate and print plural postage indicia for later use with various mail pieces, have been provided which can provide a suitable solution for some users. For example, a user may utilize a web interface provided by Stamps.com Inc. to generate and print a sheet of “generic” postage indicia, perhaps using uniquely serialized stock, for use with mail pieces much like a more traditional sheet of stamps may be used. Such generic postage indicia is not linked to a particular mail piece and thus may be used with any appropriate mail piece as needed. However, the postage indicia would be provided in some standard denomination(s) which may not be correct for a particular mail piece. This can lead to returned mail due to under payment or loss of value due to over payment. Moreover, the postage indicia, once generated, have value and are subject to inappropriate use and pilferage.